REVIVE TIME： KAKI TREE PROJECT

Plantings Seeds of Peace
Through Art
The Kaki Tree Project

On May 14, 2022, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum planted a kaki (persimmon) tree sapling on its grounds, inviting children from the local community of Hachioji to take part in the ceremony. This, however, was no ordinary tree: it came from a mother tree in Nagasaki that miraculously survived the atomic bombing and devastation of the city on August 9, 1945.

Held under the auspices of the nonprofit “Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project,” the ceremony was attended by Masayuki Ebinuma, the arborist who in 1994 nursed the badly injured tree back to health and succeeded in producing seedlings. Artist Tatsuo Miyajima, who originally displayed subsequent saplings in an art exhibition appealing for peace and was later instrumental in the project’s founding in 1996, also participated in the event.

Given its founding mandate to serve peace and commitment to the SDGs, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, having learned of the Kaki Tree Project, asked to join the Project and was granted a sapling. We felt it fitting that children help in its planting as a symbol of our collective hope that future generations may flourish in peace together with this kaki tree.

Since its inception in 1996, the Kaki Tree Project has gone global with saplings planted by some 30,000 children at more than 312 schools in Japan and 26 other countries as of April 2022.

Link to
Kaki Tree Project Committee

ART×PEACE

The second-generation kaki tree was planted in the courtyard
of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum

CROSS TALK

Katsuhiko Hibino with Tatsuo Miyajima and Masayuki Ebinuma

On May 14, 2022, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum held a Cross Talk panel discussion at its Museum Theater, with arborist Masayuki Ebinuma and artist Tatsuo Miyajima taking part, together with artist and scholar Katsuhiko Hibino. Each of the three played key roles in the Kaki Tree Project, which has since expanded to include 27 countries worldwide.

14 May 2022
14:00〜15:30
TFAM Theater
*Video in Japanese only

SPEAKERSBrief CV of Panelists

MASAYUKI EBINUMA

(Tree Doctor)

Born in Ibaraki prefecture on March 7, 1949, Mr. Ebinuma moved to the city of Nagasaki in 1977, where he began working as a landscaping contractor. In 1993, he was certified as an arborist by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of diseased trees to preserve them. In May 1994, while treating the irradiated kaki tree he succeeded in producing a nursery of seedlings from it. Since then, the arborist has engaged in activities to promote the subsequent saplings as symbols of peace throughout Japan.

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※ As of May 2022

TATSUO MIYAJIMA

(Contemporary artist)

Having earned a postgraduate degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts, ranked as the most prestigious of its kind in Japan, in 1986, Mr. Miyajima won international acclaim for his modern art pieces incorporating digital LEDs. He has since held numerous exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, with his works—one of his most iconic being “Mega Death”—shown at more than 250 venues in 30 countries. In 1998, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London; while winning numerous awards for his creations, he also served as vice president at the Tohoku University of Art and Design as well as Kyoto University of Art and Design. Mr. Miyajima has been a central figure in the global promotion of the Kaki Tree Project since 1996.

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※ As of May 2022

KATSUHIKO HIBINO

(President, Tokyo University of the Arts)

Born in Gifu prefecture in 1958, Mr. Hibino completed graduate school at the renowned Tokyo University of the Arts in 1984. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the 1982 Japan Graphic Art Exhibition grand prize, the ADC Award grand prize in 1983, 1999 Mainichi Design Prize and a Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology award for art promotion in 2015. He also participated in the Sydney Biennale in Australia in 1986 and Venice Biennale in Italy in 1995. In 2007, he joined his alma mater’s faculty as a professor and was appointed the dean of his alma mater’s faculty of fine arts from April 2023. He has also served as director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, director of the Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto and chair of the Japan Football Association Social Contribution Committee.

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※ As of May 2022

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※ As of May 2022